


Untitled Gaius comment!fic

by i_claudia



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, Mornings, Protectiveness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-02-24
Updated: 2009-02-24
Packaged: 2017-11-11 05:38:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/475105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_claudia/pseuds/i_claudia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gaius wakes just before the sun, blinking into wary consciousness as the eastern sky grows heavy with the red promise of sunrise.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled Gaius comment!fic

**Author's Note:**

> Written for amaberis's prompt: _Gaius + Merlin, everyday life_.
> 
> Originally posted on LJ [here](http://i-claudia.livejournal.com/19873.html?thread=130209#t130209). (24 February 2009)

Gaius wakes just before the sun, blinking into wary consciousness as the eastern sky grows heavy with the red promise of sunrise. The air is cool, still sweet from the damp embrace of the setting moon. Later there will be heat and noise and the air will be full of dust from the summer fair, but for now he can settle back against the thin sheets and enjoy the particular bliss of quiet morning.

A soft noise startles him, makes his heart thrum just a beat faster. He sits up carefully, glancing at the stair tucked into the back of his workshop only once. More than likely the noise is only some noble’s servant sent to fetch a remedy or a mouse scurrying back to its hole, full from a night spent in the kitchens. Gaius feels fear press in on him anyway; a fear that settled in his gut the day Merlin first walked through his door and gave him Hunith’s note.

Gaius has never known much of his step-sister beyond the fact that she was young and red-faced when he left for Camelot and Uther’s service, but her son... her son is a different story. Gaius is fond of Merlin. He knows the boy, has learned the exact way he shifts his weight when he lies and the way his forehead creases the same way when he frowns as when he laughs. Merlin is his son, the only son the world has seen fit to gift him, and while Gaius cannot fight Uther’s guards, cannot break decades of oaths and promises and friendship, he can try to stall them if they’ve finally come, try to give Merlin time to escape.

But when he lifts himself up onto his feet, body creaking and protesting as he shuffles to the door and cracks it open, there is no one to see. No servant asking for a poultice, no mouse, no guards with dangerous questions and spears.

He shuts the door again and turns back to the room, puzzled until he catches sight of Merlin, fast asleep at the workbench. Gaius feels his lips tug upwards into a smile and he walks to the boy, half-sprawled between herbs and vials, his cheek resting on the old vellum pages of the book Gaius had given him. His breath rasps quietly in his throat, and Gaius's smile grows wider – he has found the noise that startled him.

Normally, Gaius would scold Merlin for studying the magic book out where anyone could walk in and see, for falling asleep with the candles burning dangerously low, for scorning the private room Gaius had given up for him, but today he doesn’t have the heart for it. The air is too fresh, too sweet, the morning too newly beautiful to damage it with sharp words. Instead he grasps the book, easing it out from under Merlin’s cheek, and tucks a blanket securely around the boy’s shoulders before wrapping the book in an old patched tunic and stowing it safely away. Merlin can have the book back later; until then Gaius is content to let him sleep until the morning nudges him softly into waking.


End file.
